About ViVitro

ViVitro Labs

The ViVitro team brings extensive cardiovascular testing, commercialization, and regulatory experience to your project including cGMP, GLP, GCP, and ISO 17025. Lab Manager, Rob Fraser is a member of the ISO/TC 150/SC 2 – Cardiovascular implants and extracorporeal systems ISO 5840 committee. Technical and Customer Support Trainer, Marshall Kilduff has been intimately involved with ViVitro products since 2013. As part of the StarFish Group, our core team is supported and supplemented by Canada’s largest medical device designer and manufacturer, StarFish Medical.

A history of innovation

ViVitro Systems was founded by David Walker, Ph.D. and Larry Scotten, Dipl. T. in the mid-1970s. Their initial challenge was to build test equipment to evaluate a heart valve developed in the Cardiac Development Lab at Victoria’s Royal Jubilee Hospital. David and Larry’s prototype (built using a VW piston) was soon able to simulate valve positioning and physiological compliance accurately and repeatedly. Further development resulted in the first commercial Pulse Duplicator in 1984. The team later developed the HiCycle accelerated durability tester – a system that became recognized as the world’s most efficient and cost effective means of assessing heart valve durability.

A reputation for excellence

In 2009, ViVitro Systems assets were acquired by StarFish Group and renamed ViVitro Labs. StarFish Group is a Victoria BC-based company that includes StarFish Medical, a medical device design development and manufacturing firm. Their co-located relationship enables ViVitro to leverage extensive medical device development expertise and quality systems.